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Small leaks spring at BP oil well; cap to stay in place for now

Meanwhile, at a hearing in Louisiana, attorneys for crew members of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig did battle with one another and members of a government panel investigating the April 20 explosion while revealing new details about fateful choices made hours before the blowout.

In Washington, the Interior Department moved to defuse tensions with shallow-water drilling firms and Gulf Coast lawmakers over how to speed up the permit process.

BP said that one of the seepage areas, less than two miles from the Macondo well, is a natural leak not linked to the well. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad W. Allen, the national incident commander, said concerns are focused on other "anomalies" -- some seepage within several hundred yards of the well and bubbles appearing near the original blowout preventer on the sea floor.

In addition, video provided by BP showed drops of oil and gas leaking from a piece of the new containment cap just below three rams designed to cut off the flow from the well. The leak has caused the formation of some hydrates -- slushlike crystals of natural gas and water that torpedoed earlier containment efforts. But, Allen said, "we do not believe this is consequential at this time."

Allen and, in another briefing, BP senior executive Kent Wells said the company might make a second attempt to kill the well by shooting drilling mud into the blowout preventer. An earlier attempt was aborted, but Wells said stopping the flow even temporarily would make killing the well easier.

Consequences

The latest events added to tension that had begun to dissipate over the weekend as the new containment cap appeared to be holding fast without causing problems. And the developments highlighted the unappealing tradeoffs associated with every decision carried out a mile below the sea surface.

20/07/10 · 0 comentarios · Autor: Fkimixgti ·

Clinton: US, world stand with Afghanistan

KABUL — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday vowed the United States and its allies will stand by Afghanistan even as fears are growing about the course of the nearly 9-year-old war and the Obama administration plans to begin withdrawing American troops from the country next year.

Clinton acknowledged deepening opposition to international involvement in the conflict amid the rising death toll of foreign troops in the country. But she told an international conference on Afghanistan's future that the "world is with Afghanistan" and that the planned drawdown of U.S. forces was not a sign of flagging commitment.

"The July 2011 date captures both our sense of urgency and the strength of our resolve," she said of U.S. plans to accelerate the process of turning over security to Afghanistan's police and military. "The transition process is too important to push off indefinitely."

"But this date is the start of a new phase, not the end of our involvement," Clinton told the conference, which is being attended by senior officials from about 70 countries. "We have no intention of abandoning our long-term mission of achieving a stable, secure, peaceful Afghanistan."

Mounting concerns about the war and rampant corruption in Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government have prompted many in the U.S. and allied countries to raise serious questions about the wisdom of carrying on the fight.

Clinton allowed that "the road ahead will not be easy," particularly given those concerns, which could threaten funding for military operations.

"Citizens of many nations represented here, including my own, wonder whether success is even possible — and if so, whether we all have the commitment to achieve it. We will answer these questions with our actions," she said, pledging to step up U.S. civilian assistance to help rehabilitate and reconstruct the war-shattered nation.

"The world is with Afghanistan, and the world stands in opposition to al-Qaida, the extremist militant Taliban, and to those who are trying to deny Afghanistan the future it deserves," Clinton said.

Government corruption, including the reported payment of protection money to militants by U.S. contractors, has raised eyebrows in Congress, with one U.S. lawmaker putting a hold on nearly $4 billion in assistance.

Clinton said Karzai's pledges of reform and increased efforts to fight graft must be followed through on. "There are no short cuts to fighting corruption and improving governance," she said. As the Afghan government improves its accountability, the U.S. and others will support it, she said.

Another topic of U.S. and international concern is Karzai's plan to reintegrate militants into society, a prospect that had alarmed many Afghan women who fear a return to the days of Taliban rule, when women's rights and issues were severely restricted and ignored.

Clinton warned that reintegration must only be allowed for insurgents "who are ready for peace," willing to renounce violence and al-Qaida, and willing to agree to respect the Afghan constitution and the country's laws, particularly as they apply to women's rights.

Shortly before the conference opened, Clinton and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton assured Afghan women they will not be forgotten.

Peace in Afghanistan "can't come at the cost of women and women's lives," Clinton said, promising a group of women's rights activists that the issue is "a personal commitment of mine."

Ashton echoed that sentiment on behalf of the E.U. "We're not going away," she said. "We are going to support you."

Fouzia Kofi, a former Afghan legislator, told Clinton and Ashton that she understood it was difficult to convince Westerners of the importance of the issue, given deepening fears of a "never-ending war."

"They need to realize that peace here with the Taliban, and bringing Taliban on board with a compromise of basic human rights and women's rights, means taking this country back hundreds of years," Kofi said.

20/07/10 · 0 comentarios · Autor: Fkimixgti ·

Oil leak OK for now, U.S. says

Ever since the cap was used to bottle up the oil last week, engineers have been watching underwater cameras and monitoring pressure and seismic readings to see whether the well would hold or spring a new leak, perhaps one that could rupture the seafloor and make the disaster even worse.

Small amounts of oil and gas started leaking late Sunday, but "we do not believe it is consequential at this time," said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the White House's point man on the disaster.

Also, seepage from the seafloor was detected during the weekend less than 2 miles away, but Allen said it probably has nothing to do with the well. Oil and gas are known to ooze from fissures in the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

At an afternoon briefing in Washington, Allen said BP could keep the cap closed at least another 24 hours so long as the company remains alert for leaks.

BP and the government had been at odds over the company's desire to leave the cap in place and employ it like a giant cork in a bottle until a relief well being drilled deep underground can be used to permanently plug up the well.

Allen initially said his preference was to pipe oil through the cap to tankers on the surface to reduce the slight chance that the buildup of pressure inside the well would cause a new blowout. That would require releasing millions more gallons of oil into the ocean for a few days during the transition -- a spectacle BP wants to avoid.

Allen budged a bit Monday, saying unless larger problems develop, he's not inclined to open the cap.

Also on the table: Pumping drilling mud through the top of the cap and into the well-bore to block the flow.

BP said it could work now because there's less oil to fight against, but it wasn't clear how such a method would affect the cap's stability. Allen said the relief well was still the plan for a permanent fix. Somewhere between 94 million and 184 million gallons have gushed into the gulf over the past three months in one of America's worst environmental crises. BP said the cost of dealing with the spill has now reached nearly $4 billion, and it has paid $207 million to settle claims for damages.

20/07/10 · 0 comentarios · Autor: Fkimixgti ·

Algún error encontrado en la Templati

Small leaks spring at BP oil well; cap to stay in place for now

Clinton: US, world stand with Afghanistan

Oil leak OK for now, U.S. says

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